Senate Committee Passes Obamacare

The Senate Finance Committee voted to pass Chairman Max Baucus’ amended concept language proposed health care outline out of committee on a 14-9 near party-line vote. Only Sen. Olympia Snowe (RINO-Me.) moved over to the “aye” column to vote with Democrats.

At one point in the hearing today, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Az.), the Republican Whip, pointed out to Baucus that the text in the “bill” had been changed by staff and the committee had not been allowed to vote on the changes. Kyl said the indexing for inflation was incorrect affecting the CBO scoring. Baucus moved on to the next speaker without answering these concerns.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) folded to her party’s radical leadership and voting in favor of the Baucus concept “bill,” adding to her status as the most vulnerable Democrat senator — ripe for defeat in the 2010 elections.

This so-called bill that passed through committee still contains no actual legislative language, only a “plain English” text version that was apparently tossed aside the moment Democrats walked out of the committee room.

The Senate Democrat leadership will now sew it together with the bill that earlier passed the Senate Health Committee (Chaired by “Countrywide Chris” Dodd, (D-Conn)) and then put the real bill on the schedule for a floor vote. This will be done behind closed doors in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office in close consultation with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel.

The vote today was mostly a smokescreen to place into the public consciousness the notion that the Democrat takeover of health care will actually reduce the deficit. The actual bill that will come out of the Democrat’s closed-door meetings should be fully scored and placed in public view on the internet for a minimum of 72 hours before it is brought to the Senate floor for a vote to dispel this deception.

Democrats voted down an amendment that would have required that disclosure. Baucus claimed it would take his staff two weeks to figure out how to put the bill on the internet before the vote.

What was the rush again?

This is the beginning, not the end of the actual process that will result in floor votes. The fight to stop government-run health care begins in earnest today. HUMAN EVENTS will closely follow this process to keep our readers informed. Stay vigilant.